The 2026-27 NBA schedule is out, and there’s plenty of information to break down. A busy offseason will make for some bittersweet homecomings, while a high number of games will be broadcast on national television, providing a broad audience for the season’s top games in what should be another eventful year in the NBA.
Beyond the league’s 30 teams and the 82 regular season games, there are some notable numbers to keep an eye on in the grand scheme of the NBA’s schedule. Here are a few other numbers of note.
Advertisement
Highest number of nationally televised games: 34
Schedule release day is a great time to figure out which teams the league thinks will bring the most eyeballs. In the case of this season, five teams share the highest number of nationally televised slots, with 34 games each: the New York Knicks, San Antonio Spurs, Philadelphia 76ers, Los Angeles Lakers and Oklahoma City Thunder.
With all five, that means that nearly half of their games will be viewed by a big audience. And none of them are very surprising: The Knicks and Spurs, as the defending champions and runners-up (respectively), make particular sense, as does the 2025 championship-winning Thunder. The Lakers will always be the Lakers, and the Sixers’ recent addition of superstar LeBron James makes Philadelphia a must-watch team.
In other words, these are teams that people will want to watch — and the NBA is making it easy.
Advertisement
Lowest number of primetime games: 2
Then there’s the flip side to the national conversation. While five teams hold most of the top broadcast slots, there are five getting just about none of their games on national television.
The Milwaukee Bucks, Memphis Grizzlies, Sacramento Kings, Brooklyn Nets and New Orleans Pelicans will all get just two nationally televised games this year. (The Chicago Bulls only have three, just barely beating out the share of last place).
For most of these teams, this is about what’s expected, given that all of these teams failed to make the playoffs last year. But it’s still a pretty brutal blow to start the year.
Games on broadcast TV: 90
As evidence of continued interest in the NBA, the number of games on broadcast TV has increased 14% from last season, via Sports Business Journal. 90 games this season will catch a wide audience on ABC or NBC, compared to 79 games on broadcast channels last year. That stretch includes a quadrupleheader planned on ABC on January 30. (The NBA’s current media rights deal only allows two broadcast stations, ABC and NBC, to carry games.)
Advertisement
Longest stretch at home: 8 games
Two teams this season will get the luxury of a long stretch of games at home, with both the Minnesota Timberwolves and Memphis Grizzlies hosting eight straight.
The Timberwolves’ homestand will stretch from Nov. 8-23, with Minnesota hosting everyone from the Knicks to the Bulls. That span will also include back-to-back home games against the Portland Trail Blazers.
The Grizzlies will then host eight consecutive games from Feb. 3-18. Coincidentally, Memphis will also play the Blazers twice in that stretch.
Longest road trip: 7 games
Three teams, meanwhile, will have to get used to being on the road at different points this season, with the Knicks, Lakers and Pelicans all playing seven straight games away.
Advertisement
The Knicks will start a lengthy away stretch on Dec. 1 that will extend all the way to Dec. 21, with games taking place everywhere from Milwaukee to Miami.
The Lakers’ road trip starts on Jan. 28 and goes through Feb. 8, with Los Angeles sticking to a few East Coast spots before curving around to finish the road trip in Phoenix. Around the same time, the Pelicans will be away from home from Jan. 30 until Feb. 10, though they’ll stick to the eastern half of the United States.
Most neutral site games: 5
The Spurs are in an odd position this season: Five of San Antonio’s games will be played at neutral sites.
Advertisement
The Spurs will play three games at the Moody Center in Austin, likely due to scheduling conflicts within their usual home, Frost Bank Center. The first game will be on Oct. 23 against the Houston Rockets; the second two will take place on Feb. 26 and 28 against the Memphis Grizzlies and Denver Nuggets, respectively.
San Antonio has also been tapped as one of the teams to travel to Europe for a pair of games in Paris and Manchester on Jan. 14 and 17, respectively. Both games will be against the New Orleans Pelicans.
Given Spurs superstar Victor Wembanyama’s Parisian origins, San Antonio is a logical team for the overseas trip. But the two games, one of which the Spurs are technically hosting, plus the three Moody Center matchups, mean that four of the Spurs’ “home” games will not actually be at home.
Most back-to-backs: 16
Cramming so many games into the league’s season means sometimes playing games two days in a row. This year, two teams will have to play more sets of grueling back-to-backs than others, with the Brooklyn Nets and New Orleans Pelicans both playing 16 sets.
Advertisement
That ties the league-high number from last year. Every team in the league will play at least 13 sets of back-to-backs this season.
Most expensive get-in price: $1,722 (for now)
Early price checks show demand for a handful of top matchups. But by far the most desirable ticket is LeBron James’ debut for the 76ers, with Philadelphia opening the season against the Knicks on Oct. 20. Tickets for that game are already going for a get-in price of $1,722, with a median price of $3,261, via Gametime.
Some other high get-in and median prices to keep an eye on, headlined by the high-powered Christmas Day slate:
Advertisement
-
76ers at Lakers on Dec. 25: $562 get-in, $1,858 median
-
Spurs at Knicks on Dec. 25: $512 get-in, $1,702 median
-
Thunder at Timberwolves on Dec. 25: $259 get-in, $540 median
-
Heat at Celtics on Dec. 25: $191 get-in, $480 median
-
Nuggets at Warriors on Dec. 25: $188 get-in, $387 median
-
Thunder at Spurs on Oct. 20 (opening night): $101 get-in, $395 median
Game 7 rematches: 5
Last NBA postseason was one to remember, with a record-tying five playoff series heading to a deciding Game 7.
That sets up a number of exciting rematches this season, as all ten Game 7 participants play each other multiple times in the regular season.
Games on Election Day: 0
The NBA is sticking with its commitment to encourage civic duty. As has been the case for several years in a row, the league will hold no games on Nov. 3, which is Election Day in the United States.
To make up for it, all 30 NBA teams will play on Nov. 2.
Games on the final day of the regular season: 15
Another now-standard part of the NBA calendar is the final day of regular-season action, which will see all 30 teams compete against each other. The (mostly) simultaneous Decision Day format ramps up the drama ahead of the postseason, making it so that the final standings won’t be clear until the dust completely settles.
Advertisement
Seven games between Eastern Conference teams, plus one cross-conference game to help balance the odd numbers, will start at 6 p.m. ET on Apr. 11. The seven remaining Western Conference games will then start at 8:30 p.m. ET.
No games will be held on Apr. 10, the day before the last day, in order to allow every team to compete on the same timeline.
Read the full article here